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Una Mullally

Society, life and culture on the edge

Camden Crawl migrates to Dublin, get on it.

Happy Friday! Today is the first day of the Camden Crawl Dublin, a new multi-venue music festival across the city centre and little sister to the massively successful Camden, London version. It kicks off late afternoon, with wristbands and free …

Una Mullally

Una

Fri, May 11, 2012, 11:13

Happy Friday! Today is the first day of the Camden Crawl Dublin, a new multi-venue music festival across the city centre and little sister to the massively successful Camden, London version.

It kicks off late afternoon, with wristbands and free programmes available from Whelan’s on Wexford St at 4pm, the whole hook being that no one knows until the programmes are released who is playing where. Every band no matter how big or small is allotted on a democratic basis, so the big guns could be playing anywhere. There are also a bunch of free gigs happening around the city as fringe events, and you can get all that info on the website linked above and/or by following @thedublincrawl. I’m hosting the Mercantile venue on Saturday night, so pop in if you’re around.

Multi-venue festivals like this can be a little overwhelming, especially when it’s a festival all about new and breaking acts, so who should you be checking out this weekend? My top 5 picks are after the jump.

Clock Opera, were famed for their perfectly judged remixes and released their debut album a couple of weeks ago and it’s a sound record, so if you’re into some loud pop then you need to check these guys out.

Dublin boys Last Days Of 1984 have made a rather lovely Animal Collective-inspired debut record, all woozy synths and driving beats. Their album launch at the Workman’s last week brought these echoing sounds to life excellently.

Austra’s former tour mates, one half Irish, one half Australian, but based in Berlin (got it?) Kool Thing are one of my favourite new bands. Their dark atmospheric tunes perfectly mesh minimal guitar riffs and ghostly thumping. A compelling band.